King of the Castle

King of the Castle

8x10 inches

Coloured pencils and ink on printed Stonehenge paper

This artwork will be the subject of an upcoming step by step tutorial on working with coloured pencils on printed Stonehenge paper. Doing backgrounds is often the boring part for me, as I love doing the detail and drama of the main subject, so printing on your art paper, (which is really no different to working on coloured paper) can give you another avenue for exploring creativity and having a bit of fun with your art.

This gorgeous Meerkat was a most obliging model when we visited the Canberra Zoo recently and he really did look like the King of the Castle as he lorded over all the Meerkats on the ground below.



Casanova II

Casanova II

10x14 inches

Acrylics on Canson Mi-Teintes Tex Paper

What a marathon week. This painting took much longer than I had anticipated and what a joy to finally complete it!!! I really wasn't blessed with the patience to work on projects that take longer than a day or two. I remember the first time I painted this peacock a few years ago, that it took me 3 months to complete and I was so over it by the end. But I have a special passion for peacocks and wanted to challenge myself to paint a larger piece.

Apart from that we found our darling pet dog Chelsea (Chinese Crested Powder Puff) dragging her hind legs on Wednesday night and discovered she has slipped a disc in her spine which has left her partially paralysed. Hopefully with anti-inflammatories and by keeping the poor thing caged for the next month or two, her spine will heal and she will get back full mobility. She looks at me with such sad eyes through her cage - I think she feels she is being punished for something and my heart goes out to her. Animals are so much more resilient than people.

With all this and the mother of a dear friend dying suddenly, I know I am sadly behind on my blogging, but hope to catch up in the next few days. Happy Father's day to all the Dad's out there for tomorrow (although I think some of you in the US etc. celebrate Father's day at a different time of year) and will check out all your blogs soon :))

OSWOA - Muhali, Baby Gorilla

Muhali, Baby Gorilla

4 x 6 inches

Acrylic on Colourfix paper

On Monday, we took our youngest to Sydney's Taronga Zoo, and one of our highlights was this eight month old gorilla, who stole our hearts. It was fascinating to watch the gorilla's behaviour and the parrallel's between them and we humans. With four sons, and three of them in their teens, I was amused to watch two adolescent gorillas wrestling with each other and struggling for dominance, whilst their silverback father looked on with mild interest. I lost track years ago of the number of times we have asked our boys to stop wrestling in the loungeroom (usually just as the news started!!!)

Completed Eyes of Steel

Here is the completed piece - there is something so awesome about Big Cats - so beautiful and yet intimidating, I love to draw them. This ACEO is available to purchase from by ebay store. Wishing everyone a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by :)

WIP - Eyes of Steel

When selecting subjects, it is always the eyes that I am drawn to and the unnerving gaze of this gorgeous leopard fascinated and inspired me. A detailed outline was done using dark umber in the Prismacolor Verithin range. The background has been inked in with Matisse acrylic ink. And then, as always, I start with the eyes, which are only pencilled in at this stage. When the artwork is almost completed, I will go over the blackest areas with ink.